SAN FRANCISCO -- "Hope for the best, plan for the
worst." That's where Judge William Alsup says we are while we wait for a
verdict on the copyrights segment of Oracle v. Google at the U.S. District Court this morning.

Yesterday afternoon,
the jury returned with the eighth note issued during the deliberation
period, which asked, "What happens if we can't reach a unanimous
decision and people are not budging?"

At an 8 a.m. PT hearing today, Alsup asked attorneys from both
Oracle and Google for their thoughts about where to proceed from here.

Once again, both sides have polarizing views on this, citing
precedent cases in both directions. On the one hand, Oracle wants to
proceed to phase two of the trial if the jury can come to a partial
verdict on the four questions they must answer on the verdict form.

Based on the questions already asked from the jury, it looks as
though the jurors have found that Google did copy Oracle's intellectual
property, but they might be still torn on whether or not it is a case of
fair use.

However, Google's counsel Robert Van Nest made it crystal clear that
Google wants all or nothing -- meaning a complete verdict or a mistrial.

"We do need to be careful about what we get," Van Nest cautioned. "If
the jury fails to resolve an issue, the only correct result there is a
mistrial on that divisible question and move on to the patent phase."

That's becoming a more possible road map in this case by the hour.
Oracle's lead attorney Michael Jacobs cited a previous federal case that
suggested five possible outcomes:

Resubmit the issues for further deliberations

Ask the parties to forgo unanimity and go with a majority vote

Enter partial judgment

Declare a mistrial

Order a partial retrial to cover those issues not unanimously agreed upon

Jacobs was very wary of the last option, plotting an alternative
could be if Oracle doesn't win copyright liability, we could go through
the patent portion of the trial followed by a retrial on unresolved
issues and new damages.

Oracle is trying to preclude Schwartz's testimony from the next phase
of the trial with a motion it filed at midnight. Yet
at the hearing, Van Nest snapped back that he hadn't seen the motion
yet. Thus, Judge Alsup gave Google a deadline of 6 p.m. tomorrow to file
a response.

Although Van Nest said we won't see any "celebrities" in phase two,
he did say it was a possibility that they would be calling Schwartz back
to the stand, quipping "that is if you consider Mr. Schwartz a
celebrity."